First Aid Training

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Everyone has a panic button. It is a natural protective internal system that causes us to react in life threatening situations. First aid situations can trigger a person’s panic button.

Did you hear about the paramedic that came upon the scene of a rescue in progress by a bystander who was performing CPR on an unconscious casualty? The bystander was doing chest compressions and “practice breathing” into the casualty. One would question why anyone would “practice breathe” in a real emergency scenario. Chest compressions alone would be more advantageous as they would not interrupt the flow of blood to the vital organs. However, if you understand the dynamics of the average person who is thrown into an “un-average” situation, the reasons become clearer.

Emergencies quite naturally induce the feeling of panic among those that are not highly trained or experienced. Panic can interfere with the thinking process causing the responder to revert to a more robotic mode which copies the movements learned in the first aid class. First Aid Instructors that do not want to clean and sanitize manikins or do not have enough manikins available for the whole class may tell their students not to breathe directly into them during training. Instead, they may tell them to, “practice breathe”, whereby the student simulates a breath to the side of the manikin face.
Unfortunately, this training style does not provide the responder with the best opportunity of success in an emergency situation.

Another example of panic inducing responders into robotic mode occurred at a plant in Mississauga. An employee experienced a severe laceration on the hand that caused a significant amount of blood spillage. The trained responders bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding but did not take off the paper wrapping from the gauze bandage pads. The employees reported that in their first aid class they practiced bandaging using gauze pads that were still in their paper wrapping.

If you are booking first aid training for your employees, check to make sure your provider of choice will have enough manikins so that everyone in the class can practice the skills exactly as they would of a real situation occurs. Training kits with protective barriers and bandages should also be provided to each student so that practice is as realistic as possible, ensuring that even if the panic button is stimulated and robotic memory takes over, the end result will be as successful as possible

Dianne Rende is the Executive Director of St. John Ambulance, Peel Dufferin Branch. As Canada’s leading authority in first aid, St. John Ambulance is dedicated to improving health and safety at work, at home and at play. Dianne can be reached by email at [email protected] or for more information visit www.sja.ca.

St. John Ambulance is Canada’s leading authority in first aid and the preferred choice of employers for employee first aid training*.
We receive many questions from employers looking to comply with Ontario First Aid Regulation 1101. Over the next few weeks, we will publish the answers to some of the questions that are asked most often. If you have any questions you would like us to respond to please send them to: [email protected]

How many employees should we certify in First Aid?

Employers will often think that certifying one employee in First Aid & CPR will meet the requirements of Ontario First Aid Regulation 1101. There are a few situations where this may be true, but generally only when there is a one person work area such as a taxi or a truck driver.
The regulation requires that there always be someone on duty in the work area with current first aid certification at all times that work is in operation. Regulatory authorities will not tell you how many employees to train in order to be in compliance. That is for the employer to determine based on their operations.
If any of the following situations arises with the one first aid certified employee at a workplace where they are the only one with the training, the employer will be out of compliance:
• Employee is on vacation, sick leave or is working from home or another location.
• Employee only covers one shift cycle of multiple shift cycles
• Employee is the injured employee needing assistance
• Employee faints at the sight of blood or injury
• Employee is not able to access all areas of the work operation due to restricted access controls
It may take three, four, or more employees per shift, and per work area, trained in first aid in order to be in compliance with Regulation 1101.
*Innovative Research Study, August 2011

St. John Ambulance is proud to offer other specialty training for our customers in an online format. This training is available to both companies and individuals. This cost effective, easy to manage program will help you keep track of employee training, progress and certification. You can sign up directly on the training site, or by contacting our client services team.